Ms. Mendoza’s glowing account of Guantánamo has sparked an active debate among readers, on our Web site and others, about whether her visit was inappropriate or instead supports the argument that the facility is somehow too nice for those still detained there.

The Miss Universe Organization has posted a statement on the main page of Ms. Mendoza’s blog defending the visit and the now-removed blog post. That statement is the same one that the organization sent to The Lede late Tuesday afternoon, and that we posted as an update to our original report.

The whole passage from Ms. Mendoza’s original blog post dealing with Guantánamo — the organization confirmed to The Lede that she wrote it herself — can still be read in full in The Lede’s first post on the subject.

For the time being, you can still read another post on Ms. Mendoza’s blog, written the night before the trip to Cuba, headlined “Miami Fashion Week & Guantánamo Bay,” in which she described her excitement about her impending trip to the base on behalf of the U.S.O. After describing a trip to Miami, Ms. Mendoza wrote:

On Friday, we left for Jacksonville for one night because the next day we were going to Guantánamo, Cuba!!!! Wow, my job is amazing!!!! I love it, I let you guys know next week how Guantánamo was …. Muah!

The official statement, sent to us yesterday on the letterhead of the Miss Universe Organization — “an NBC Universal, Inc. and Donald J. Trump Partnership” — is signed by Paula M. Shugart, the organization’s president. It reads in part:

Dayana Mendoza’s comments on her blog were in reference to the hospitality she received while meeting the members of the U.S. military and their families who are stationed in Guantánamo.

The Miss Universe Organization echoes the mission of the U.S.O., which is to lift the spirits of U.S. troops and their families wherever they serve. We will continue to show our appreciation and express our gratitude to the military personnel who serve our nation.

Ms. Mendoza’s spirit-lifting efforts at Guantánamo Bay made the headlines in Venezuela, her homeland, on Tuesday. There was no word yet on what the pro-Cuban president of her country, Hugo Chavez, might make of a Venezuelan doing such a thing, but that surely won’t be long in coming.

Mr. Chavez tends to find his way into the spotlight. The English-language Web site of the Venezuelan newspaper El Universal reports on Wednesday that Mr. Chavez said he had spoken with the President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan and supported Mr. Bashir’s decision to defy an international arrest warrant by traveling abroad. “I invited him to visit Caracas,” Mr. Chavez said on Tuesday in a speech to an Arab-South American summit in Doha, Qatar.

Nothing is guaranteed to work the Liberal-Left media and its constituency into a froth than any reporting that does not fit into their party line regarding the war against Islamic terror. No deviations must be allowed from their mantra that Guantanamo, use of forceful interrogations etc., are self-defeating. Which of course, they are not and have been so advocated for by many, many intelligence officials.

I have absolutely no problem with Dayana Mendoza visiting Guantánamo Bay. This has nothing to do with the fine troops doing their jobs down there. I have a problem with Dayana Mendoza acting all giddy like she is at Disney World. It is the airhead, giddy school girl behavior of Dayana Mendoza at a place like as grave as Guantánamo Bay that is disturbing. That giddy act would be appropriate if she visited the set of America Idol. Not Guantánamo Bay. Patriotism they say is the last refuge of a scoundrel and that is where her handlers intend to go now.

It must be something in the water in Venezuela. If Mr Chavez can invite that mass murderer Bashir to Venezuela, I don’t see why he should have a problem with what Dayana Mendoza wrote about her trip. The folks at Guantánamo Bay are angels compared to that mass murdering Sudanese president.

Guantanamo Bay is SOOOO over! It’s absolutely a fashion don’t, which is the real scandal here as it might relate to a bathing beauty..

On the other hand, I don’t think a visit to a military base by a beauty pageant winner is news, period. She didn’t endorse torture, did she? The soldiers at Guantanmo didn’t ask to be sent there so leave ’em alone.

The real question is, “How is it that a small country like Venezuela has produced more Miss Universe winners than any other country?

Unless they institute a ‘water boarding competition’ in the Miss Universe contest, let’s just turn the page on this one.

“It must be something in the water in Venezuela. If Mr Chavez can invite that mass murderer Bashir to Venezuela, I don’t see why he should have a problem with what Dayana Mendoza wrote about her trip. The folks at Guantánamo Bay are angels compared to that mass murdering Sudanese president.

You just don’t understand. Bashir is standing up to the iperialist US and its lackeys. Just like the brave freedom fighters of Hamas, fighting the power is more important than the lives a few individuals. Genocide in the name of revolution is just an unfortunate byproduct of the system. Just ask Papa Joe.

As far as i know intelligence, self awareness (other than in the sense of good looks and ability to twirl a baton) and world knowledge are NOT considered strong-suits for beauty pageants at whatever level.
So someone from the miss universe organization riddle me/us why they would send miss universe and have her write about Guantanamo. Also, troops and prisoners are both intricately related, so no rambling excuses about boosting troop morale. Guantanamo is currently one of the most controversial issues US and international issues, and the best we can do about that is to send an excited 20-something year old to tell us how she enjoyed watching the well trained dogs and talking to the buff men? i mean JESUS people!

The only possible newsworthy angle here is the potential embarrassment and/or involvement of Hugo Chavez and thus I guess I’m OK with this. The line between People magazine and the New York Times is, I think, becoming more blurred. That is not a good thing.

What can we really expect? It seems that fame has overcome reason and insensitivity grows in the wide open public spaces. Just for a moment I’d like to set aside anger and remember that torture is an experience I can not wish upon any person with whom I am aquainted. Therefore, I could not wish it on a stranger.

#13, How about former CIA head George Tenet, former CIA top official John Brennan, former CIA head of counter-intelligence Michael Scheuer for starters. And if you don’t think there many, many others, in fact the majority of agents who don’t share their and my belief, you are a very naive and uninformed fellow. Thanks for the beer.

It is amazing how some people are so critical of others’ mental ability simply because they have different opinion or are working from a different set of facts. Personally, I find Ms. Mendoza’s comments to be intelligent, articulate, and well reasoned,.

Perhaps, Ms. Mendoza and I need to meet and discuss our common interests.

Actually, Shinjitsu, her visiting and gawking at them would be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Article 13 protects prisoners from loss of dignity through “public curiosity.” Article 34 grants prisoners of war “complete latitude in the exercise of their religious duties.” So inviting a scantily-clad woman to GTMO for the express purpose of offending the detainees’ religious sensibilities would, in fact, violate the Convention.

I say this to demonstrate how inadequate the Geneva Convention is for dealing with terrorists and suspected terrorists. The Convention was written to address the needs of uniformed soldiers in conventional wars, a very different situation than the detainees in Guantanamo. It’s necessary to create a new legal system for dealing with international terror. (Don’t ask me how, though!)

What's Next

About

The Lede is a blog that remixes national and international news stories -- adding information gleaned from the Web or gathered through original reporting -- to supplement articles in The New York Times and draw readers in to the global conversation about the news taking place online.

Readers are encouraged to take part in the blogging by using the comments threads to suggest links to relevant material elsewhere on the Web or by submitting eyewitness accounts, photographs or video of news events. Read more.

Six young Iranians were arrested and forced to repent on state television Tuesday for the grievous offense of proclaiming themselves to be “Happy in Tehran,” in a homemade music video they posted on YouTube.Read more…